This is such a fun read. I’d say it’s for children around 5-8 years old. It features a mixed-race family of witches, and we see what happens when Maggie is jealous of her new baby brother and decides to cast a spell on herself to make her cuter too. The spell backfires in both a hilarious and poignant way, but we see how much the parents still love Maggie.
It’s a short read, and the illustrations are great.I particularly liked Bat the Chameleon, Maggie’s pet.
Thank you to NetGalley for the arc.

This was a sweet book with some surprises and fun along the way.

Little Maggie Sparks is a witch. She usually fizzes with magic but is in a worried state of mind at the start of the book. Reason? Her Mum and Dad are away to the hospital to fetch her a new baby brother. Her Grandpa Sparks and her pet chameleon, Bat, try to improve her mood but to no avail. When the new baby Alfie, is brought home, he is everything Maggie feared, and more. He looks “Yuck” (to use her own word), he cries and eats and poops and farts and burps all day long, and worse of all, he seems to get all the attention from her parents. Maggie is obviously upset about this change in status quo. Can she use her magic to bring things back to the way they were?

This is one of those books that are only for kids and hold no charm for grown-up kids like me. The storyline is pretty straightforward and the laughs are exactly as expected. Bat the chameleon is amazing. He reminded me of Pascal from the Disney movie ‘Tangled’. Alfie is adorable. Maggie begins as a grumpy and selfish child (quite typical behaviour in case of having to deal with a new sibling) I was hoping that she redeems herself at the end but the change in her feelings is written very abruptly. There’s no remorse over her behaviour and no new fondness for her little brother. There are many things left unexplained. So I never knew if Maggie’s Mum could also do magic, and why Maggie’s Dad was not so good at it. The extent of Maggie’s magical skill is not specified so we never know why some things happened to her the way they did. Also, if Grandpa Sparks was so good at magic, how come he didn’t attempt to solve the problem Maggie finds herself in the end? (Am I overanalysing? I think I am. It’s a children’s book after all… Let it go, Rosh!!!)

On the positive side, it was fabulous to see an inter-racial couple as Maggie’s parents. (Though the story doesn’t mention the race, the illustrations make it clear.) The graphics accompanying the story are amazing and easily my favourite part of the book.

Overall, it’s a cute story and children will certainly enjoy the magical bits. Recommended for little readers aged 4 and above. (Will have to read aloud to the younger lot but as the story includes many onomatopoeic effects, the read-aloud are sure to be fun!)

3.5 stars, rounding up to 4.

My thanks to Sweet Cherry Publishing and NetGalley for the ARC of “Maggie Sparks and the Monster Baby”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

I thought that this was a fun read and a great story!

The book was easy to read and understand and it had a great natural flow to the writing style.

The words used really suit the target age range and I read this with my daughter and whilst she is too young herself to really read all of the words she loved the story itself.

It has some cracking illustrations to help bring the characters to life.

It is 4 stars from me for this one, a great start to the series and can’t wait to read the next book now – I can see this series being a big hit – highly recommended!

Review to come November 25th (closer to release date) on blog/goodreads.

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange of an honest review.


A cute and magical book about a little girl, Maggie, who gets a little brother… and isn’t happy with him. I just flew through this book and I am even happier that I decided to just read it on my phone (despite that making my eyes hurt) because my e-reader had zero illustrations and apparently the original file did have illustrations, even A LOT of them. And this is why, publishers, please just make it all mobi/epub. Not freaking PDF.

Meet Maggie, a girl who is a witch and who can do some really good magic despite her age. We see how she tries to handle having a little brother and also gain attention of her parents. From witching her burp to be a megaburp to defeat her brothers icky burps to magicking her toys and stuff to float on the ceiling (which doesn’t end well) to many other things. I had fun seeing her go through her days though I was also hoping that she would start to accept her brother. At least a little bit. He is not so bad, but I can imagine her feelings.

The ending and her trick there had me laughing especially seeing how the result was. Oh Maggie. XD Though soon I also just wanted to scoop her up and help her out. I am glad though that she was able to find someone. And what happens next made me smile. The brother was just adorable (and my guess was right on what he meant to say) + I am proud of the parents.

One thing though, I would have loved to see the parents do a bit more of an effort to get Maggie to get used to her little brother. And maybe should have prepared her a bit more on the whole thing. XD At times I could definitely imagine why Maggie did what she did. It wasn’t always the best solution, but for a tiny girl who feels alone it was a solution she thought was best.

The illustrations, OMG I just adored those. They were so cute and fun and fitted really well with the story.

I definitely would like more Maggie Sparks, I am curious what is next in the life for this little girl and what kind of magic she will do next!

Love books that represent all types of families - and heroes! I would have loved a little more clarity on why Maggie became invisible, but it was a great story and message for new older siblings.

Quite a fun little read, Maggie took a little warming up to but once I pushed through a third of the book I couldn't stop. Good read.